


gasping for oxygen, the flames roar

by magebirdi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ba Sing Se Shenanigans, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Spirit World Trickery, aka mage really wants kuzon to be alive, and will write an incredibly self-indulgent fic to make it happen, because it's not fair only bumi gets to be alive and see aang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27043051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magebirdi/pseuds/magebirdi
Summary: Kuzon never meant to betray his nation.He never meant to end up in the Spirit World.And he never meant to end up in the future.All he wanted to do was find his best friend Aang at the Southern Air Temple. But after discovering that his best friend was the avatar and promising Monk Gyatso that he would find Aang, Kuzon spent the rest of childhood hiding from his nation and searching for Aang. At some point along the way, he slipped into the Spirit World. When he finally finds a way out, more time has passed than Kuzon could ever imagine. The Fire Nation has almost completely taken over the world and the avatar has only just resurfaced after one hundred years of silence. Kuzon knows that it's been far too long for it to ever be /his/ avatar, but he'll track down this new avatar no matter what it takes.And, while he's at it, taking down the Fire Nation sounds pretty nice, too.tl;dr: A fic where Kuzon pops out of the Spirit World after almost a hundred years, decides to go to Ba Sing Se and ends up becoming an older brother to Zuko while working in the same tea shop.
Relationships: Aang & Kuzon (Avatar), Iroh & Kuzon (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Kuzon & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 74
Kudos: 146





	1. wishing on a full moon

The air was hot and humid.

The young man swatted away a fly. He had seen it and its kin flying around the poor cabbage merchant’s wares earlier, but he had assumed that the flies had all stayed behind at Full Moon Bay with the cabbages. The ferry he was on now was absolutely crowded with people: refugees, merchants and the actual workers of the ship. He felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb among them. Any moment now, he thought he was going to slip up and say something he wasn’t supposed to. If not that, he was going to accidentally start bending. He wasn’t a good bender by any means, but he had been resisting the urge to bend for a solid month at this point. He was going to lose his mind if he couldn’t do it soon.

He took a deep breath.

He had to calm himself down. He would feel better once he was in the city; he could easily blend into a crowd in Ba Sing Se. Countless refugees arrived there every single day. No one would look twice at a man wearing shabby, ill-fitting clothes. 

He wandered over to the edge of the ship. The food he had just had didn’t sit well in his stomach. He felt like he was going to be sick, but he didn’t know if it was from the rocking of the ferry or the thought of what lay ahead of him. He hadn’t even really thought things through yet. He never did. He just had to hope that this stupid plan of his would fall into place once he got inside the city. 

There were a few others nearby. An older man and his nephew were talking just a few feet away. Snippets of their conversation drifted over to where the young man was standing - Ba Sing Se, apparently, was the site of the older man’s greatest failure. And the boy hated the food; he quickly found a fellow commiserator in the form of a boy who had to be right around his age. As the two boys went off to talk, their voices grew increasingly more quiet. The young man found himself sneaking a glance in the direction of the group-

-and making eye contact with the older man.

The young man froze.

So much for hiding out in the background.

But instead of being berated for giving strange looks, he found himself on the receiving end of unexpected friendliness. The older man gave him a smile and a welcoming nod as he finished his meal. Despite himself, the young man went over and sat down beside him.

“Hello,” the older man said.

He seemed so  _ friendly _ , but the young man’s mouth went dry even when he saw the twinkle in the older man’s eyes. Something about the softness of the look reminded the young man of someone else. He couldn’t figure out who. But the gentle, kind look made just a  _ little  _ of the fear fade away. 

“Hi,” he managed to get out.

There was an awkward pause. The young man regretted leaving his spot. 

“Have you ever been to Ba Sing Se before?” the older man suddenly asked.

He blinked; that hadn’t been a question he had expected. “No.”

The older man gave another nod and gentle smile. “I went there a long time ago,” he said, with a regret to his voice that the young man knew all too well. “I’m sure it has changed since I was last there, but I know that I will be able to find a new home there.”

After a moment of hesitation, the young man gave a tiny smile of his own.

“I hope I can find my home there, too,” he said. 

“Are you traveling with any family?” the older man asked.

The young man shook his head. “I...I don’t have a family anymore.”

The older man dipped his own head. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

The pit in his stomach returned; he could feel his stomach twisting and churning at the lie that he was about to utter. It was true. He knew it was. But it just felt  _ wrong  _ pretending that he was anything like this kind older man and the other refugees on this ship. “Thank you. It...was a  _ long  _ time ago. The Fire Nation took them from me.”

He looked down at his lap.

“...But a lot of people have lost their family to the Fire Nation,” he said, “so I don’t think that makes me all that special.”

The older man put his hand on his shoulder.

“Your pain is not meaningless,” the older man comforted him. “Comparing your grief to others’ will only make it harder to bear.” 

The young man wished he could find comfort in those words. But even though his guilt still remained, the reminder from a stranger made him feel a little less alone. He looked over at the older man again, searching his face for what had felt so familiar. He was suddenly struck by the memory of rushing air and hiding in a tight,  _ dark _ crevice. The realization made him feel sad, but it also made him even less willing to leave this conversation. 

He wasn't sure how long they both were silent, but the older man finally cut through the silence with a skillful change of topic. 

"My name is Mushi," he offered. 

"Mine is Lee," the younger man replied, feeling horrible again. He gave the man a smile that just barely reached his eyes. "What’s your nephew's name?"

Mushi gave him a smile. 

"His name is also Lee," he said. 

Lee faltered. 

"It...er...is a common name," Lee said.

Mushi laughed. Lee’s posture grew less tense at the sound. He felt even less nervous when Mushi said, “It certainly is. We met five other Lees in Full Moon Bay alone!” 

Lee grinned. 

“I met three more on the way there,” he added, “but they might have been part of your five.”   


Whatever this was, it felt...nice. Lee couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to laugh like this. All he could think about was his childhood friend;  _ he  _ had always gotten a laugh or two out of Lee no matter  _ what  _ the conversation was. The thought sobered him up a little, but in a bittersweet kind of way. By the time they fell silent again, Lee felt unsurprisingly introspective. He had been feeling that a lot, lately. Traveling had a habit of doing that to people - especially when you were traveling alone.

As if sensing that the conversation had stalled, someone approached their duo. Lee didn’t see them at first; he just heard their feet storming across the wooden floor of the ferry’s deck. He only turned to look at them when Mushi greeted the newcomer and said, “Lee, this is Lee.” 

Lee turned to see Mushi’s nephew.

And immediately froze when he did.

Lee’s nephew had a scar right around his eye. The older Lee had seen burn scars before during his travels; he knew that the Fire Nation was cruel to its victims. But he had never seen one that looked so  _ painful _ . Seeing how hurt a  _ kid  _ was made his stomach churn again. He wasn’t sure if it was with anger or with sympathy. The scar must have been a few years old, but something like that obviously wasn’t easily forgotten. Mushi’s nephew bristled with annoyance when he saw the older Lee’s look. Lee tried to look away quickly, but he knew the damage had already been done. 

He wasn’t going to ask.

He couldn’t  _ let  _ himself ask.

“It’s nice to meet you,” the older Lee said.

Mushi’s nephew just crossed his arms.

...How long was it until they reached Ba Sing Se?   


“I’m sorry,” Mushi apologized, ducking his head a little. “My nephew and I have been traveling for some time, and he has grown tired of all these introductions.”

“It’s alright,” the older Lee quickly said. “I…”

He faltered, looking at the scar.

Nope, he still wasn’t going to go there.

“I can get tired of it, too,” he awkwardly finished. He got back to his feet. “I should probably go now. My, uh…” 

He hesitated again, suddenly realizing he didn’t really have a good excuse. He had already admitted he was coming to Ba Sing Se alone, and it would be clear to both before him that he didn’t have any friends here on this ferry. 

“You can stay if you want,” Mushi offered. He gestured back down at where Lee had been sitting seconds before. “The trip will be shorter in the company of friends.”

After a quick glance over in the younger Lee’s direction, he sat back down.

They spent the rest of the ferry ride swapping stories of their travels. At some point in the night, Mushi’s nephew slipped off to join his friend from earlier. When they returned with food for all of the refugees, Lee tried to pretend that he hadn’t overheard the friend mention stealing food from the captain’s private stores. And when the boy’s other friends joined their slowly growing group later that night, Lee found his resolution slowly returning.

The boy - Jet - was going to the city for a new beginning. Mushi glanced at his nephew when he said that people deserve second chances. Second chances, beginnings - he wasn’t sure what this plan of his was, but Lee knew that it was a chance to make something right. He went to sleep that night with his stomach full and his head filled with stories of places he had never seen but dearly wanted to visit. 

**xXx**

The next day brought with it their arrival at Ba Sing Se. Lee couldn’t get over how  _ big  _ the city was. The wall seemed to stretch to the sky, and the city beyond it seemed to go past the horizon. They were only allowed a glimpse of both before they were shuffled inside some kind of dark waiting room. It was still crowded, but the extra space let them spread out more. Lee had been prepared to slip off the first moment he got, but he was caught by Mushi before he could make it to the exit.

Mushi had a tea cup in his hand. In the back of his mind, Lee thought that Mushi must have been lucky enough to have caught the tea vendor before his wares cooled - Lee could see the steam rising from the little cup. Mushi’s nephew was off talking to Jet again; Lee tried to push his unease to the side. And though he didn’t really know why, he found himself blocking Jet’s view when the younger boy narrowed his eyes at Mushi.

“I was worried you already left,” Mushi said. “You seem to be in such a hurry.”

Lee gave an awkward smile. 

“I’m just really excited to see the city,” he eagerly said, with a little extra bit of cheer he didn’t entirely feel. He was excited, to some extent. But it wasn’t nearly as much as whatever show he was trying to put on for a kind older man. “But I’m glad that you caught me before I could leave.”

“Do you know what you are going to do in Ba Sing Se?” Mushi asked.

Lee thought for a moment.

He knew very well what he was going to do in Ba Sing Se, but there was no way that he would ever tell Mushi that. He also was starting to realize he would have to stay in the city a bit before he was ready to implement his plan. He had always had an impulsive, adventurous streak, but age had made him smart enough to know that he needed a little bit of background.

“I’d like to sell tea,” he finally said. 

Mushi gave him another warm smile. “Working in a tea shop certainly sounds nice. I want to do the same thing myself.”

Lee’s smile became genuine.

“Imagine if we worked in the same one,” he suggested. “That would be flam-”

He awkwardly cleared his throat, trying to play off the last word as a cough.

“-cool,” he finished. “Very cool. So cool that it’s icy cool.” 

Mushi gave him a concerned look.

Lee glanced around the room, eyes landing on Jet and his friends. Mushi’s nephew was already heading away from them. Sensing the boy’s anger and seeing a very convenient excuse, Lee gave Mushi a wave and started to hurriedly walk away.

“I should go talk to them,” he said, gesturing at Jet’s trio. He was sure that Mushi saw right through that feeble excuse, but Lee was gone before Mushi could say anything more. By the time he reached Jet and glanced back in Mushi’s direction, the uncle and nephew were in a heated conversation.

He turned back to the trio.

“It was nice meeting you all,” Lee said. “Hope to see you around the city!”

And, with that, Lee was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! Thank you for deciding to open this fic. I really love the idea of Kuzon & Aang's friendship continuing into the main timeline of the show, but there's sadly a lack of fanfiction about the two of them - and definitely not a fic about that. This story was born out of my desire to see Aang reunited with his Fire Nation bud, as well as wanting poor Kuzon to get some closure with Aang. 
> 
> This fic is inspired by several different fics, and I would feel bad if I didn't share them here: 
> 
> "promises of the heart" by delightwrites, for giving me the idea of Kuzon chilling in the Spirit World.
> 
> "Fallen" by thesometimeswarrior, for giving me the idea of Kuzon being there during Monk Gyatso's final moments and still being so, /so/ young. 
> 
> "Scraps For the Fire" by emberislands, for giving me the idea of Kuzon being determined to find out what happened to be Aang and being driven to stop his own nation.
> 
> And "Blue" by blacklipscurse (bealeciphers), for giving me the idea to mess around with canon in Ba Sing Se and having Zuko have his own little adventure there. 
> 
> I don't know if my fics can live up to any of those fics, but hopefully you'll enjoy them! And if you want to check out some awesome Kuzon-centric fics, look at the list up above - save for "Blue". That's an amazing Zukka fic that also deserves just as much love. 
> 
> Here's a list of links to the fics, going in order of how they're listed:
> 
> promises of the heart - https://archiveofourown.org/works/24875245  
> Fallen - https://archiveofourown.org/works/10916916  
> Scraps For the Fire - https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926769/chapters/63015427  
> Blue - https://archiveofourown.org/works/24376396/chapters/58792420


	2. playing house

To make things clear: Lee  _ really  _ liked Mushi and his nephew, who was coincidentally also named Lee.

(Agni,  _ why  _ had he thought it was a good idea to stick with one of the most popular names in the past century after he pulled it out of his butt? This was getting confusing to think about.) 

He liked them so much that he was thinking of visiting them if he could ever find the tea shop that Mushi someday would work at - and if he ended up staying in the city long enough. He liked them so much that he kept thinking back to the two of them and the rocky, loving relationship they clearly had. And he liked them so much that he kept thinking about how hard it must have been for someone so young to be traveling with his much older uncle.

But when Lee had thought, in the very back of his head, that it would be nice to see that little family again as he left for the rest of Ba Sing Se, he hadn’t meant he wanted to see them an hour later when he was moving into the home given to him by the city. He hadn’t expected them to be his  _ neighbors _ .

It wasn’t like he had anything to hide. He barely had anything on him at this point. Most of his older belongings had been sold at pawn shops for money, and the rest were safely tucked away in the bag he had been carrying over his shoulder since he was on the ferry. Yet he still found himself guarding the entrance to his makeshift little home when Mushi and his nephew came over to greet their new neighbor. They talked for a little bit, but Mushi finally seemed to pick up on his nephew’s impatience and Lee’s discomfort with the whole conversation. 

Softly closing the door behind him, Lee took a deep breath.

If he wasn’t careful, he was going to accidentally firebend his candle again - which he had already done, back when he first heard Mushi knock on the door. The candle thankfully was out-of-view from the windows, but he couldn’t safely bend in the room until he had got himself some curtains.

_ Aang _ , he thought,  _ I wish you could see me now _ . 

_ This isn’t anything like the whole egg incident, but this counts as an adventure, doesn’t it? I feel like I’m some kind of spy. Agni knows that’s what people would think I am if they saw me bending, but anyone who’s ever met me would think that I’d be a terrible spy. I can’t even bend as well as you did.  _

He sighed, sat down on the cold, hard ground, and tried to push away the knot that was growing in his stomach. Outright ignoring it was always easier than trying to untangle all the feelings that it was made up of. 

**xXx**

Lee having bad luck wasn’t a new concept. It was something he was very familiar with. He could trace every poor bit of luck throughout his life. Depending on how far back he was counting, he’d include the infamous egg incident. Then there was everything with his best friend. Everything in between then and now. Stupidly picking Lee as a go-to alias. Somehow being neighbors with the two he’d like to be  _ distant  _ friends with.

But this? This was a totally different level of unfortunate. It wasn’t bad on its own, but paired with literally everything else going on in his life right now, this was  _ definitely  _ a case of terrible bad luck. 

Lee needed money if he was going to get his way into the heart of the city. And if he wanted money, he needed a job. A tea shop sounded like a great idea in theory. It was easy, he had made tea for  _ years  _ because it was the only way to fight off the seemingly endless slew of allergies, and a tea shop owner likely wouldn’t ask any questions. But when he was ushered inside after what had to be the shortest job interview ever, Lee started to realize that he wasn’t as smart as he possibly was.

Because, if he had been smart enough to think about his conversation from the day before, he would have remembered that a certain older man wanted to work in a tea shop. It was one thing to imagine working at the same tea shop; it was another to see Mushi actually standing there with an apron. If that wasn’t the universe’s way of telling him he was an idiot, Lee didn’t know what it was. To make matters worse, Mushi’s nephew apparently was also involved with the tea business.

Having a coworker with exactly the same name went just as well as Lee thought it would. When the owner of the Pao Family Tea House called his name, both Lees turned to look at him - with Mushi occasionally prompting his nephew. When Mushi was talking to his nephew and mentioned his name, the older Lee kept thinking he was involved in the conversation. 

The tea shop had a slow stream of customers, but the few that did come in managed to get on Lee’s nerves. By the time he returned home from work - and the market, where he bought himself some curtains - he was absolutely exhausted. All he wanted to do, ironically enough, was make some tea.

But then he heard noises coming from next door.

...Which was strange, considering that he could have sworn Mushi and his nephew were shopping in the market. 

Grabbing his teapot like it was some kind of weapon and not a metal container filled with cold, disgusting water, Lee carefully approached the door to Mushi’s apartment. There was shuffling coming from inside of it. He propped the slightly ajar open with his foot and peeked inside.

... _ Jet  _ was in there.

He was sneaking around like he thought he was on some kind of mission; Lee almost laughed at that. He wasn’t  _ that  _ much older than Jet, technically, but there was something so  _ childish  _ about the way that Jet was looking around the room. Maybe it was that grass he had sticking out of his mouth. Did he ever take that thing out?

“Hi, Jet,” Lee said, pushing the door open the rest of the way.

Jet went stiff.

A moment later, he spun around to face the person who had interrupted his attempted...whatever this was. He tried to put on a casual air, but it was hard to take him seriously when he leaned up against the counter.

“I didn’t know you were coming to visit Mushi and Lee,” Lee said.

“I didn’t know you lived in this building,” Jet said, giving him a cool look. “I would have said hi.”

Lee followed his gaze. Jet was eying the set of spark rocks that were out. That should have made  _ something  _ click in Lee’s mind, but his brain just wasn’t able to put the pieces together right now. 

“It must have been a surprise visit,” Lee guessed, “because you didn’t stop by last night and I didn’t see you at work  _ or  _ at the market.” 

Jet gave him a long, hard look.

Lee returned it. 

For good measure, he also raised the teapot up a little higher - just in case the threat that wasn’t really a threat wasn’t registering. “Why are you trying to ‘liberate’ Mushi’s spark rocks?” 

There was a long moment of silence. Jet kept giving him a look that he knew all too well.  _ Lee  _ had given that look all the time when he was a kid; his best friend was almost always on the receiving end. Jet was trying to figure out if he could trust him with the knowledge of some grand scheme. Considering that the scheme involved breaking-and-entering, Lee wasn’t all that sure he wanted to know what it was.

“I have reason to believe,” Jet informed him, leaning up against the counter a little more and crossing his arms, “that Mushi’s a firebender. His nephew’s probably one, too.”

Lee felt his blood run cold.

“I know it must come as a shock,” Jet said, a consoling tone that wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable as Mushi’s had been back on the ferry. “I can see how horrified you are by the thought. But my friends and I - me, Smellerbee and Longshot - are going to prove to everyone that there’s Fire Nation  _ scum _ here in Ba Sing Se.” 

Lee took a step back, the hand holding the teapot shaking. “How-How could you say that?”

He wasn’t sure what he was really asking. Was he asking how Jet could be so sure that Mushi was a firebender? That they were Fire Nation? That they were  _ scum _ ? 

The Fire Nation had taken his family. He needed to remember the story he was supposed to be a part of. He was supposed to be  _ angry  _ at the thought of being lied to, and angry at the thought that two Fire Nation people were hiding out here in Ba Sing Se. But all he could think about was how  _ wrong  _ Jet was. How Mushi and Lee couldn’t possibly be Fire Nation, and how the true Fire Nation person in this apartment building was standing right in front of him. 

“I have my sources,” Jet vaguely said.

Lee could barely give a nod.

“The...the spark rocks,” he finally said. “You wanted to take them to force Mushi to firebend.”

Jet grinned. “I see you’re quick to catch on.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Lee said. The grin started to fade. Lee could see the anger and indignity burning in Jet’s eyes. It was the kind of passion he would expect from a Fire Nation kid, but Lee guessed that it was normal for a boy displaced by war to have that look. Agni knew he had it in the past, too. “You’re taking too many risks - what if a stranger had caught you? And Mushi can always borrow spark rocks from someone else.” 

The anger flared again.

“I should have known that you would judge me,” Jet said. “I should have guessed someone like you wouldn’t care about the truth.” 

“Someone like me?” Lee repeated.

Jet started to head towards the window. One foot on the windowsill, he said, “Someone who’s happy to work in a tea shop when there’s a war going on outside of this city’s walls.”

His grip on the teapot tightened.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Lee said, fire creeping into his voice. “You don’t know who I am or what I’ve been through.”

Jet glanced back at him.

“You’re a coward,” he said.

As Jet slipped off into the night, the teapot steamed and whistled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, before writing this chapter: jet will just be lurking in the background throughout this fic because he's technically part of the show's plot  
> me, after writing this chapter: jet's apparently antagonizing "lee" now
> 
> also, as a side note to the end note - writing lee all the time is confusing because there's two people with the same name, but i think i'm starting to get the hang of it.


	3. no war in ba sing se

Lee would never let himself stoop to Jet’s level, but he stayed alert the next few days.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He knew barely anything about the Fire Nation these days, and certainly didn’t know why people from the Fire Nation would come to Ba Sing Se. If Mushi really  _ was  _ a firebender, he must have been a desperate one. He was sure Jet had it in his mind that the only reason a firebender could be in Ba Sing Se was if they were a spy, but Jet also wasn’t a firebender. It was clear to Lee that he was lacking in the moral complexity department. 

But musings on Jet aside, Lee began to... _ notice  _ things.

It was little things a nonbender like Jet would never notice. Mushi was like a moth drawn to a flame, but the moth knew the flame couldn’t hurt it. Anyone who wasn’t a firebender feared fire; they tried their best to avoid coming in contact with it. And while Mushi certainly had respect for the flame, Mushi barely flinched at too-hot tea and always seemed to be brushing up against the steaming teapot in the tea house. 

His nephew was different. The younger Lee was afraid of the flame. That much was clear. But sometimes, during his more frustrated outbursts, Lee caught the way that the candles swayed. He heard the whistling of the kettle even when the flames should have died down enough to let it cool. 

Jet flitted around the tea shop without his friends. He always seemed to be lingering outside the shop when Lee looked through the doors, only to slip back among the crowd after they made eye contact. Jet never came close enough to see the bending that was happening right in front of his face. He was looking for a fireshow.

The candles grew brighter the night that Jet finally snapped. Lee almost firebended, but Mushi’s nephew took care of the attempted attack using his surprisingly adept sword skills. Lee filed that thought away as Jet was dragged off by far too many soldiers for a single angry boy. No one in the streets moved to help. No one sent Mushi or the younger Lee questioning looks. Mushi just ushered his nephew inside, the tea owner shaking his head as he entered right after them.

Lee was the last one in the street that night. He stared into the darkness long after Jet and the soldiers were gone, wondering how he could find what he was looking for in a place where the war he wanted to fight didn’t exist. 

The street lights gasped for oxygen as he turned back to the tea house.

He knew a thing or two about rulers stealing away their people in the middle of the night.

**xXx**

When the Pao Family Tea House opened at the crack of dawn the next day, Jet was nowhere to be found. The people in the street were different when he looked out the window in between serving orders. Now it was Smellerbee and Longshot who wandered the streets, but there was an aimlessness that wasn’t there when Jet was staking out his supposed firebenders. They never glanced in the direction of the tea shop. 

Lee knew that the two had been there the previous night. He knew that they saw Jet being taken away and didn’t do a thing. Resting his elbows on the counters after a particularly busy shift, he wondered what their relationship could possibly be like. He wondered what had led the three of them to Ba Sing Se, and he wondered what led them to stand by the night before and desperately search in the morning.

There had been a saying, once, about an island deep in the heart of the Fire Nation. People reinvented themselves on that island; they found that little part of themselves they had never been able to find before and embraced it.

Ba Sing Se was different. It was the place that you became a tiny spark in a roaring fire, gasping for air but being suffocated by every new log added to the pile. People didn’t discover themselves here. They just grew more lost. Smellerbee and Longshot were lost. The younger Lee - who only seemed to be doing this job because his uncle told him to - was lost. And the older Lee, the one who had come here with a clear purpose in mind, felt even more lost than he had when he stared up at the city walls.

He had only been here a few days. It felt like a lifetime.

He was shaken out of his train of thought by Pao saying his name. It took a moment for the name that wasn’t really his to register, and another moment more for him to realize what Lee he was talking about. Lee stood up a little straighter and listened to the older man. He apparently hadn’t been as secretive with his feelings as he thought he was; Pao was complaining about how mopey he was. At some point in the conversation, Mushi suggested that Lee go and get a bite to eat. 

It wasn’t until Lee stepped outside that he realized why: Mushi’s nephew had also been banished from the tea house.

Lee gave him an awkward smile. He tried to focus on anything but the scar; he knew he was failing miserably at that.

“It looks like we’ve both been kicked out for today,” he said. The younger Lee just looked away and crossed his arms again, an angry expression on his face. 

The older of the two resisted the urge to sigh. Mushi hadn’t outright said it, but he could definitely see what he was angling for. He wanted someone to explore Ba Sing Se with his nephew. Feeling a surprising burst of indignity, Lee decided that he wasn’t going to press this ill-fated relationship. It was clear the boy didn’t want to talk to him.

But Lee couldn’t help but glance back when he started to head into the street.

And he couldn’t help but falter when he saw how young and small and  _ alone  _ Mushi’s nephew looked as he stood in front of the tea shop. Feeling a pang of familiarity, Lee turned back around. He walked over to the boy and grabbed onto his wrist with a speed that was probably surprising for a tea shop employee.

The boy immediately jerked his arm away.

“Don’t touch me,” he growled, startled - and almost  _ fearful _ . Lee got a pit in his stomach when he looked at the boy’s scar again. Was that the reason he was so hesitant to be touched, or was it something else? 

“I’m sorry,” Lee apologized, holding his hands up in surrender. “Old habits die hard.”

Mushi’s nephew gave him a wary look. 

“I had a friend, once,” Lee said. He  _ never  _ talked about Aang to anyone. He didn’t know why he was talking about him to a practical stranger now, but this just felt...right. Reaching out to a lonely kid seemed like the perfect way to honor Aang's memory. “We barely saw each other, but I used to drag him  _ everywhere  _ when we did. We'd go on all sorts of adventures together. You're not him and I  _ know _ you're not him, but my first thought was to do what I did back then."

The boy didn't say anything. His look wasn't really wary. It was more confused than anything else. Lee wondered how many times people had talked to him like this before. Did he ever have an Aang before, or was Lee fulfilling that role for him now?

"...I don't need friends," Mushi's nephew said, in the kind of voice that said that he very much did. "I need to…"

He faltered; he didn't seem to know how to finish that train of thought. 

Lee mused over the declaration for a moment. 

"Then think of this like an added bonus!" he suggested, giving the boy an honest-to-Agni grin. He couldn't remember the last time he felt like smiling like that. "A friend might not be what you need the most right now, but it's always good to make as many friends as you can along the way. It makes life more enjoyable."

He paused. 

"...And lunch cheaper," he pointed out.

A long, seemingly endless moment passed. 

And then Mushi's nephew took a step away from the tea house, arms still crossed and expression still hesitant. 

Lee tried his very best not to give a triumphant cry at his success. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was very difficult posting this chapter thanks to a cat who loves climbing all over me when I'm typing, but this chapter is finally up! i'm about halfway through the next one - and i'm honestly surprised with how it's going. i didn't really have a set idea in mind for this part of the plot, but the lees are having a really nice heart-to-heart on a subject that i just realized wasn't really addressed in the show. 
> 
> also, thank you for all the kudos and bookmarks! i'm really surprised by how popular this is - i thought it would just be a thing that only a few people read. i keep underestimating the power of large fandoms!
> 
> if you haven't already, please think about leaving a comment on this fic! kudos and bookmarks make me smile, but interacting with my readers through comments is what really motivates me to keep writing.


	4. cool your jets

Lee didn't have a specific destination in mind, but the boy he was with didn't seem to mind. He kept giving Lee looks when he thought Lee wasn't watching. Lee wasn't really sure  _ what _ Mushi’s nephew was looking for, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he was trying to figure out what was going through Lee's head. 

_ Good luck with that, _ Lee thought. He barely could keep track of what was going through his own head half the time. He doubted a boy who barely knew him could do it any better. 

They were standing beside a fountain near a market stall with their lunch when Mushi’s nephew finally spoke again.

"What was he like?" the boy asked. 

Lee looked up from his meal. "Who?"

"Your friend."

He closed his eyes.

As the years went by, it was becoming harder to clearly remember what Aang looked like. He remembered the arrows, obviously, and the air nomad robes. But the shape of his face was blurry in his mind, and he couldn’t remember the exact shade his eyes had been. 

But he never forgot Aang's smile, and he never forgot the energy behind Aang's laughter. He never forgot what it was like to be panting, out-of-breath, beside him after their latest great adventure. 

Lee liked to think those were the most important memories. Remembering what Aang looked like was just a comfort; remembering  _ who _ he had been was the best way to honor his memory. 

He opened his eyes again. 

"He was kind," Lee finally said. "And funny. And he  _ always  _ was ready to get into trouble, even when my ideas were stupid."

He took a bite out of his little tiny loaf of bread. 

"One time," he said, "we fought off a group of thieves who were trying to steal an egg from a dr- _ really _ big bird. I don't remember what kind of bird. I just really wanted to fly on it, so we tracked it down and stopped the robbery right in its tracks. It's one of my favorite memories with him."

He looked over at Mushi’s nephew. He had barely eaten his lunch. The boy was just  _ staring  _ at the bread and butter with a blank expression on his face. Not for the first time, Lee wondered what he could be thinking of. 

But unlike those other times, he decided to go out on a limb and guess. 

"Are you thinking about Jet?"

The boy froze.

Then he whipped his head up and narrowed his eyes into yet another glare. "Did my uncle tell you to talk to me?" he demanded. 

Lee shook his head. 

"He didn't," Lee said. Not outright, at least. He looked back down at his own lunch. "I just saw how close you were with him on the ferry. What he said last night - what he  _ did  _ last night - must have hurt."

People continued to pass them and the fountain by, oblivious to their conversation. 

"...He was wrong," the boy finally replied. His grip on his bread tightened. "I'm not a firebender, and neither is Uncle."

"I never said you were," Lee hurriedly protested. 

When he looked up, he saw Mushi’s nephew was giving him that wary expression of his again. Lee once again glanced at the scar on the boy's face - and wondered what exactly he had been through. 

Lee let out a sigh and rubbed the back of the neck. 

"I...I know how hard it is to make friends," he admitted. "I never really had one after I lost that friend of mine, and that was...a  _ long _ time ago. So even if you didn't see Jet as a friend just yet, I know that an accusation like that could hurt - especially if Jet never talked about that privately with you before."

They fell back into a quiet, uncomfortable silence. Passersby barely gave them a second look as they sat down on the very edge of the fountain. Lee was the first to finish his lunch, but Mushi’s nephew didn't take much longer to.

It seemed too early to head back to the tea house or their apartments. Maybe they could go somewhere else in the city. He didn't know what was cheap enough for them to do in Ba Sing Se, but there had to be  _ something _ . He had heard people mention a zoo earlier in the tea shop. Would that be a good place to go?

"...If I was a firebender," Mushi's nephew suddenly asked, "what would you do?"

Lee gave him a little smile. 

"I'd want to talk," he said. 

**xXx**

Lee had seriously underestimated how hard it was to find a zoo. 

After a little bit of pleading and bargaining, he had managed to convince Mushi’s nephew to go along with his idea. It wasn’t like either one of them felt like returning to work just yet, and a zoo was the perfect distraction. But they had been wandering around the lower ring of the city looking for it for  _ ages _ , and he  _ still  _ was just as clueless as to where it was. Maybe it was deeper within Ba Sing Se. That would suck. Lee knew that both him and Mushi’s nephew would stick out like a sore thumb in the other rings of the city. He might have never been there before, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that rich people wouldn’t like dirty poor people moving around in their part of the city.

The younger Lee was starting to get bored. The older Lee secretly was, too, but he couldn’t give up hope. They were going to find where this zoo was no matter what.

“We have to be near it,” Lee said. “We’ve searched everywhere else.”

Mushi’s nephew crossed his arms. “What if it’s in another ring of the city?”

Lee faltered. He had been hoping the boy wouldn’t come to the same conclusion he just had.

“Let’s hope it’s not,” Lee quickly said. The boy looked unconvinced by this idea. Lee, in response, frantically looked around for some sign of the elusive zoo. Maybe he should have been paying more attention to where they were going earlier. This part of the city was almost eerily empty; only a few shady people lingered on the edge of the streets. 

They turned down another old, decrepit street.

Unable to shake a sudden feeling of unease, Lee glanced back over his shoulder.

...There was someone from the previous street tailing them. He should have known how much helpless and weak two desperate, lost young people would look to the people lurking in this area of the city. 

“We’re being followed,” Mushi’s nephew whispered.

Lee almost skidded to a stop at the comment.

How had he noticed that? It made sense for Lee to notice it. His senses had been heightened these past few months, and knowing if someone was following him had been a necessity the years before. But the younger Lee was just a  _ kid _ . He was a teenage refugee. Why would he be so in touch with something like that?

And Mushi’s nephew didn’t sound scared. He sounded  _ tired _ , like he had been in situations like this one way too many times before.

But now wasn’t the time to be questioning where the boy had been before ending up in Ba Sing Se. It wasn’t time to be questioning  _ who  _ he had been before ending up in Ba Sing Se. They needed to lose their follower so Lee didn’t have to resort to bending.

“We need to act natural,” Lee replied, his voice just as low. “Keep walking normal.”   


Another set of footsteps joined the first one behind them. Two followers.  _ Great _ . Lee was really wondering just how bad his luck could get right now. But the two Lees continued to walk as if they hadn’t noticed the people behind them, turning and ducking down streets randomly in an attempt to shake the followers off.

They didn’t budge.

It was time for Plan B.

Lee grabbed onto the boy’s wrist.

“Come on!” he said. Mushi’s nephew almost jerked his arm away again, but he relented the moment that Lee started running down the street. Behind them, their two followers started giving chase. 

It was too bad there weren’t any swords nearby; the younger Lee seemed to be good with those. As it was, all they could do was run now. They turned down a few more streets, their movements even more random than before. It was only when they came barreling towards a dead end that Lee realized he really should have looked at a map of Ba Sing Se - or been smart enough to ask for directions to the zoo.

The two stopped.

In the distance, the footsteps grew louder.

“We need somewhere to hide,” Lee said, glancing around wildly.

“They know we came down here,” the boy pointed out - also wildly looking around. “They can still find us.”

Agni knew Mushi’s nephew was right, but there had to be  _ something  _ they could use here. His life had been an unfortunate series of events. For just  _ once  _ in his life, he wanted to be lucky. 

He  _ needed  _ to be lucky.

His eyes landed on the door to a warehouse. 

Without giving the younger Lee a chance to protest the decision, the older of the two made a beeline for the warehouse’s side door. The wooden floor creaked underneath their feet as they stepped inside. Lee wasn’t an earthbender by any means, but the ground felt unsteady and uncertain as they tried to get as far away from the door as they could.

Even though he could hear the two followers right outside the door, neither one stepped inside.

As their footsteps faded into the distance again, Lee let out a sigh. Even the boy next to him looked relieved.

“Maybe we should take a rain check on the zoo plan-” Lee started to say, taking a step towards the side door.

There was a loud cracking noise from beneath them.

Lee looked down just in time to see the old, rotted wooden planks give way. To both his horror and surprise, there was a seemingly endless abyss underneath their feet. Lee reached out for his friend as they went tumbling into the darkness, but his fingers didn’t even catch the edge of the younger Lee’s shirt.

The two fell. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it wasn't ever my intention for jet to ever be more than a background character, but it hit me while i was writing this chapter that we never see zuko deal with the whole "jet attacking him" thing. even if they weren't super close, i feel like that would really hurt.
> 
> i just hope this chapter did that justice. <3
> 
> before i threw zuko & "lee" into a gaping hole, anyways >>


	5. breath of fire

_ The mist was suffocatingly strong. _

_ It clung to every inch of his clothes - every inch of his soul. It was denser than any fog he had ever seen before; he couldn’t even make out what lay a few feet in front of him. He’d occasionally hear the sound of other people. He’d see other people. But they’d fade out of his view just as quickly as they appeared, consumed by thoughts and memories he couldn’t ever see. _

_ He was losing himself. He could feel it in his gut. He knew to be careful around spirits, and he knew that this one - or maybe these many spirits - were desperate for his attention. They were feeding him memories he didn’t want to see. He kept trying to block out the screams of fire and rushing of the air.  _

_ He hadn’t wanted to come here. When he saw the fog, he knew he should have avoided it. _

_ But his curiosity had gotten the best of him. He had taken a step too far. The already weak cliff had crumbled underneath his feet, and he had gone tumbling into the foggy sea down below. _

_ And he couldn’t even light a fire to show him the way out. _

**xXx**

When he opened his eyes, Lee wondered if he was dead.

If he was, it certainly hurt more than he expected. His head was pounding and aching. Every bit of his body hurt. And there was a stabbing pain in his leg. As he stared up at the darkness above his head, he wondered why he was unlucky enough to hurt when he was dead, too.

But then the memories came rushing back.

The tea shop, the search for the zoo, the flight, the fall - it all suddenly popped up in his already strained mind. He unsteadily got to his feet, the hurting leg wobbling as he put pressure on it. His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet. Still, he felt something hard and cold underneath his foot. They must have fallen into some kind of cave system underneath Ba Sing Se. If he just reached his hand out far enough-

He grimaced as he put too much pressure on his leg.

But at least his hand had finally found rock. Lifting his injured leg up as stiffly as possible, he hobbled over to the wall. He let out a pained little snicker at that. His age must have been finally catching up to him, try as his body might to avoid it. The snicker eventually died down as he leaned up against the wall, but he still felt weirdly giddy. It must have been the adrenaline.

...Agni, he had missed the adrenaline.

“Lee?” he called out.

There wasn’t a response.

Gritting his teeth together, he shifted his weight again so he was facing away from the wall and into the cavern or tunnels he was presumably in right now. “Lee, are you okay-”

He swore as he put too much pressure on his leg.

“Please tell me you’re okay,” he said, trying to fight the pain and find his voice again. “Your uncle is going to kill me if you got injured when we were hanging out.” 

He glanced up at the dark ceiling above him again. He could just barely make out a pinprick of light; he had no idea how far they had fallen. It looked like they weren’t going to use any natural light sources here. But his eyes were taking too long to adjust to the darkness, and he was terrified at the thought of the younger Lee laying half-dead somewhere in this place. 

There had been no answer to his calls, which had to mean that the boy in question was still unconscious.

_ And not dead _ , Lee thought.

Taking a deep breath, he gave it one last try.

“Lee?” he called out. “Where are you?”

There wasn’t an answer.

Feeling the all-too-familiar pit return to his gut, Lee did one of the stupidest things he had ever done in his entire life.  He firebended.

It wasn’t the type of fireshow Jet had been looking for the previous night. It wasn’t anything like what Aang probably would have been able to do one day. But it was a warm, bright little light that illuminated the entirety of the cave they had fallen into. The light hurt, at first, but Lee’s eyes adjusted to the light far quicker than they adjusted to the darkness.

His gaze landed on the body a few feet away.

His breath caught in his throat. He took a few steps towards the boy’s seemingly lifeless body, hoping to Agni and anyone else who would listen that he would be alive when Lee finally reached his side. Each step was painfully slow and unsteady, but Lee pushed away his own pain so he could make sure that the boy was alright.

When he finally reached his side, Lee crouched down beside him. Holding the flame up in one hand right near the boy’s face, he reached a hand out to check his pulse. He was turned in a way that Lee couldn’t see if his chest was rising and falling - he was too terrified to check for sure.

But then the boy’s eyes shot open.

And he looked  _ terrified  _ when he saw the flame that Lee was holding.

He stumbled back away from Lee, eyes wide and fingers wildly searching for some kind of weapon on the cave floor. All Lee could do was stare in horror as his worst nightmare came true. The boy had seen him firebend, and now he saw him as an enemy. Jet couldn’t have been more wrong when he claimed Mushi and his nephew were firebenders.

“I’m sorry,” Lee pleaded. “I’m so, so sorry. I-I never-”

“You knew,” the boy accused him. He got to his feet, but he was almost as unsteady as Lee had been. He was leaning up against the wall of the cave now, eyes wild and afraid. Lee knew he was trying to stand tall and strong, but all that Lee saw was a scared teenager. “Azula sent you.” 

Lee blinked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. The flame in his hand was still lighting up the room, but it hadn’t grown any stronger yet. He didn't want to scare Mushi’s nephew anymore than he already had. 

“You have to,” the boy insisted. He winced as he pressed up against the cave wall. He went to put his hand out to do  _ something _ , only to falter when he presumably felt a spike of pain. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lee repeated. He lowered the flame down from right beside his face. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay - I couldn't see anything, so I had to firebend-"

"You're lying!" the boy shouted.

The room suddenly got blindly bright. Lee stumbled back, his senses registering what had just happened before the rest of him. It wasn't his own flames that had suddenly become an inferno. That little fire was barely an ember in his hands. There was another fire burning in the cave, and Lee was shocked when he realized it was fiercely burning in the boy's hands. 

"Jet was right," Lee whispered, incredulous.

But if Mushi’s nephew was a firebender, too, why was he so afraid of him? Why was he so  _ angry _ ?

He needed to think.

Lee took a deep breath and steadied his breathing. The flame that had been dancing in the palm of his hand was quickly extinguished. Mushi’s nephew had the light taken care of for now, and Lee didn’t want to seem like anymore of a threat while he thought. 

The name Azula sounded vaguely familiar. It wasn’t a name that had been popular when he was a child, but it also wasn’t a name that was all that popular now. Maybe it was popular over in the Fire Nation - it had been a  _ long  _ time since Lee went there. But even that didn’t feel right. He wouldn’t have recognized it based on that alone.

Whoever Azula was, they had enough power to send a firebender into the heart of Ba Sing Se. Add in the familiarity with some aspect of the name…

It clicked.

“You think the princess of the Fire Nation sent me,” Lee guessed. From the solemn, angry look on the boy’s face, Lee knew that he had hit the nail on the head. He still didn’t have the foggiest idea why someone like  _ that  _ would send a bender after a teenager and his uncle, but Lee felt a wave of relief when he realized that his own secret was still safe. 

Lee’s leg still  _ hurt _ , but he managed to maneuver himself over to a nearby rock. While in the process, he caught a glimpse of what was causing the pain: he had a piece of wood sticking out of his leg. It must have been part of the floor they had broken through. 

Lee winced as he sat down. 

The boy’s gaze fell to Lee’s injured leg. The flames in his hands still burned as brightly as before, but he lowered them as he stared at the injury. Lee wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Even without knowing that Lee sucked at firebending, Mushi’s nephew didn’t see him as a major threat anymore.

Lee took a deep breath, puffed out his cheeks and then let all of the air back out as a sigh.

It looked like a little bit of honesty was needed right now.

“You obviously don’t trust me right now,” he said, “and I don’t blame you. It’s dangerous for firebenders to be here. If I’m here, I have to have as good of a reason as you do. I’m not really sure my reason is nearly as good as yours, but…”

Mushi’s nephew took a step toward Lee, but his feet were unsteady. He had to lean against the wall for support. Lee looked the boy over again. He didn’t have any wood sticking out of his legs, but there was a cut on his head that was dripping blood. Once he got himself through this conversation, Lee would need to do some serious first aid for both of them. 

“You should probably sit down,” Lee suggested.

Anger flashed in the boy’s eyes.

“I don’t want to-” He stumbled forward a little, just barely managing to catch himself before he could go tumbling into Lee. “...Fine.”

Finding a nearby rock, the younger Lee sat down across from him. The older of the two couldn’t help but let a sigh of relief slip out. That was one less thing for him to worry about right now. 

"First things first," Lee finally started. "Lee isn't  _ really  _ my name. It's Kuzon."

"That's an old Fire Nation name," the boy said, voice still a little wary. The flames continued to burn.    


Kuzon gave a tiny smile.

“It is,” he agreed. His resolve to stick to the truth suddenly faltered; he wasn’t ready to tell the entire story yet. The last thing Kuzon wanted was for Lee to think he had lost it. They were still walking a fine line. If he pushed Lee too far, Lee would never want to trust him. “I...I was named after my grandfather. He used to live in the Fire Nation, once, but he ran away from it after…”

Kuzon hesitated. Fire, air, the darkness - all of it kept running through his mind. He wished he think about what had happened without his mind replaying the worst of the memories, but his memories would never be that kind. 

“...After the Air Nomads were killed,” he finished. “He found a small home far, far away from anyone else here in the Earth Kingdom. He had a son. Like him, he was a firebender. And eventually that son had his own son - me. It wasn’t safe for our family to be around other people, so we hid away from the world.” 

He looked into Lee’s golden eyes. 

“I don’t know what your thoughts are on this war,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve been wondering about all of the hurt you’ve probably seen on the journey that led you here. But I  _ hate  _ what’s happening right now, and I hate what happened one hundred years ago when it started. I came to Ba Sing Se because I wanted to help however I could.”

His gaze fell down to the palm of his hand as he bended up another tiny little flame. It was nothing like the infernos that still raged in Lee’s hands. But he found he still found comfort in the warmth it gave off, and still found peace in its soft crackling.

“I’m not a great firebender,” he said. “I’m a mediocre one at best. The best I can really do is set things on fire and light up a room. I don’t know how to use weapons, and my knowledge of everything Fire Nation is a century old. I’m not going to change the course of the world. But if I could help the world I’ve found myself in even a little bit, I’d be happy.”

He closed his hand and extinguished the flame.

Looking up at Lee, he gave him a tiny, warm smile.

“ _ That’s  _ why I could never work with Princess Azula,” Kuzon said. “I heard about the Fire Nation’s current princess during my journey here - I know she doesn’t have any problems with this war. Meeting you was just a coincidence.” 

Taking one last deep breath, Kuzon rested his hands in his lap. The silence that followed his story was long and tortuous - he wasn’t sure what Lee would do next. Looking at his face didn’t help much, either. He looked just as conflicted as he had when this conversation started. 

The flames suddenly dimmed.

“...I believe you,” Lee finally said.

Kuzon let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

"Thank Agni,” he said. His smile grew to a grin as he unsteadily got to his feet. “Now, let’s get ourselves out of here!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again! 
> 
> this is actually the third version of this chapter. i kept debating on how long i wanted to draw out kuzon's reveal, and if i wanted kuzon to find out that lee is zuko. if i ever do an outtake chapter of this fic, i'll definitely include the conversations that didn't make the cut - in one of them, kuzon just straight out tells zuko the truth. i thought it made more sense/would be more fun if i drew out the reveal, so instead kuzon gave zuko a slightly less truthful version of who he was. :)


	6. a calming cup of tea

As Lee and Kuzon quickly found out, the caves that they had fallen into were part of a larger cave system that ran underneath Ba Sing Se. Their first plan had been to climb out of the cave system the way they had entered it, but the plan was quickly shot down when Kuzon discovered he couldn’t use his injured leg while climbing. They resorted to wandering aimlessly through a seemingly endless array of tunnels and caverns. The only break from the dreary landscape was the occasional glowing green gem. If he was so worried about their injuries, Kuzon would have lingered longer near them to get a closer look.

Neither Lee or Kuzon said much during the walk. Kuzon was trying to keep his focus on the flame he was bending in his hand; Lee was trying to keep him steady. The second of the tasks became harder as the tunnels started to slope upwards, but Kuzon took that as a good sign. If the tunnels were getting closer to the surface, they were more likely to find a way out. 

It felt like an eternity passed during their walk through the caves, but the sun was still in the sky when they finally found an exit into a building just as old and forgotten as the one they had fallen through the floor of. As the door to the old, abandoned building closed behind them, Kuzon cupped his hand above his eye and stared up at the sun. How long had they really been gone? The sun was supposed to be reliable, but his sense of time was terrible now. He couldn’t read it nearly as well as he used to.

_ Old age strikes again _ , he thought, a little snicker escaping him.

Lee, who he was still using as a makeshift crutch, gave him a look.

Kuzon did his best to hide his snicker behind a cough.

Lee stared at him for another minute, but quickly looked away a second later.

“I recognize this street,” the boy said. “We’re near our apartments.”

Kuzon followed his gaze.

He could only see a little bit of the bustling street right now, but it  _ did  _ look a little familiar. If he squinted, he could make out the clothes line that always ran between their building and the one beside it. He could even see a few familiar faces. They must have ended up in the right neighborhood after all. He could even see Mushi walking past the little alley they were in with a smile on his face-

Beside Kuzon, Lee gave a surprised, “Uncle?” 

Kuzon glanced at his hand.

He glanced back at Mushi, who was beginning to turn.

And then Kuzon stuffed his hand behind his back, snuffing out the flame  _ just  _ in case the firebending wasn’t shared between nephew and uncle.

The moment that his eyes met Mushi’s, Kuzon felt the all-too-familiar pit form in his stomach. He was still trying to unpack everything that had happened down in the cave, but he knew for certain that he felt horrible about Lee getting hurt in his stomach. Part of him expected the anger that always seemed to appear in Lee’s eyes. Part of him expected that Mushi would notice how the smell of smoke lingered in the air. He wasn’t sure which thing he would have preferred.

But he didn’t have to decide.

When Mushi saw their injuries, the only look on his face was concern.

...Kuzon couldn’t remember the last time someone looked at him like that.

**xXx**

Note to future self: it was impossible to say no to Mushi.

He tried. He knew how to tend to his own injuries; he didn’t need Mushi to take care of them. Lee deserved more attention at the moment, anyways. He was the one who was actually Mushi’s nephew. But the moment Kuzon suggested that he should return to his apartment after explaining where they had fallen, Mushi offered to take care of his injuries. And when Kuzon insisted that no, he didn’t have to, Mushi responded by offering to make some tea. Now Kuzon was awkwardly sitting near the apartment’s sole table, watching as Mushi prepared the tea. 

He glanced over at Lee.

And then he resisted the urge to sigh - not for the first time and certainly not for the last - when he saw that Lee had fallen asleep next to the table. He knew it was stupid to think, but he felt like he had been abandoned. Not that he thought Mushi would lash out at him. He didn’t think he had it in him. But the thought of having a heart-to-heart over a cup of tea was more than a little frightening.

Mushi sat down next to him.

Even before the cup had been handed to him, Kuzon blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Mushi asked. Kuzon knew that Mushi knew  _ exactly  _ what he was apologizing for, but he didn’t really feel like pushing it.

He stared down at the tea in his hands.

“I know you wanted me to watch over your nephew,” Kuzon said, “and he got hurt because I didn’t think of asking for directions.” 

In the moment of silence that followed, Kuzon could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He didn’t dare to look up at Mushi’s face. Some little part of him knew that Mushi wouldn’t be all that angry, but he was terrified that the little part of him was wrong. Try as he might to get out of this conversation, he...liked this. He liked not being alone for once. If Mushi said he couldn’t spend time with Lee after what they had been through in the cave, Kuzon was sure his heart would break for good.

“It was impossible to foresee what would happen,” Mushi finally said.

Kuzon’s grip on the teacup tightened.

“I could have tried,” he pointed. “I...I  _ should  _ have tried.”

If Kuzon had mustered the courage to look up at Mushi, he would have seen the older man giving him a soft, searching look. He would have seen Mushi trying his best to determine the source of Kuzon’s insistence. But all that Kuzon saw were the ripples in his tea, and the way that the steam rose up towards the ceiling. 

There was a  _ clink  _ as Mushi put his own cup on the table.

“Even if the fall happened when he was with you,” Mushi said, “what is important is that you made sure he made it out. I saw how careful you were when leaning on my nephew. You did the best you could.”

Kuzon hesitantly raised his head.

When his eyes met Mushi’s, he discovered that the older man was giving him the same warm smile he had given Kuzon back on the ferry. The ripples in his tea stopped; the steam stopped rising off of its surface as quickly as it had been for the duration of their admittedly short conversation. He felt as at peace as the little, tiny part of him that recognized  _ something  _ familiar in Mushi during their first meeting. 

Kuzon was safe here. 

He was sure of that now.

He took a deep breath.

“...Lee told me,” Kuzon admitted. “Well, more like  _ showed  _ me. About him being a...you know…” 

Suddenly very much aware of how thin the walls of the apartments probably were, Kuzon made a frantic gesture in the direction of where the teapot was being heated - and, more specifically, at the spark rocks sitting just inches away from the flame. 

Mushi looked where he was pointing.

“Ah,” he finally said. Kuzon caught a glimpse of the wariness that his nephew always seemed to have in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. 

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Kuzon hurriedly added. “I’d...uh...be  _ kind  _ of a hypocrite if I did. But it felt wrong not mentioning that.  _ Or  _ how he thought I worked for the princess of the Fire Nation. Which I don’t. I haven’t even met her. Just wanted to get that out there in case you have the same reaction as Lee did - not that I think you would! You’re totally different people. But, uh…”

Face bright red, Kuzon decided it was best to hide his embarrassment at rambling by taking a  _ very  _ long sip of his tea. 

When he finally looked up at Mushi again, he felt like he had passed some kind of unofficial test. Mushi was still smiling, but there was an added twinkle to his eyes. The older man took a sip of his own tea. Kuzon followed suit with one last sip of his own.

“Forgive me for asking,” Mushi started, “but what are you doing all the way here in Ba Sing Se?” 

Kuzon gave a tiny little smile.

“It’s a bit of a long story,” he admitted.

Mushi gestured towards the teapot. “Then it’s a good thing we have plenty of tea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for some reason, iroh was a *lot* harder to write in this chapter than i expected. but i really loved the idea of him reassuring kuzon about what happened, as well as having kuzon admit that he knew some of iroh & zuko's secrets. he'll still be clueless on who they really are, but at least he made himself some firebender friends. :) 
> 
> (and iroh is totally on the way to becoming kuzon's uncle now. it wasn't something i originally planned on having in this fic, but he just started adopting him the moment i threw them on the page at the same time akdjfgadg)


	7. a basket full of peaches

Kuzon told Mushi exactly the same story that he had told Lee. It wasn't entirely true, but it was enough of the truth to make sense. Someday, maybe, he would tell Mushi the  _ entire  _ truth. He liked the idea of being able to confide in someone. But he wasn't ready to do it just yet, and he wasn't entirely sure how Mushi would react. 

Mushi, in turn, told him the story of how they had ended up in Ba Sing Se. He mentioned a vague connection to Princess Azula; Kuzon didn't press it. And while he knew that Mushi was still hiding things, he also knew he wasn't really one to talk. 

But after that day, things changed.

Kuzon found himself falling into a comforting rhythm. He would walk to work in the mornings with Mushi and Lee. He would work for half of the day. Then Lee and him would leave for the lunch break. They stopped trying to search for the zoo, but they did continue to wander throughout the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. Kuzon started taking note of all of the different landmarks they passed. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with that knowledge, but it felt like it was useful to have a working map of where everything was - especially when he added in what he remembered of the caves.

After working a few more hours, the three would return to their apartments for tea. Lee was always restless, but Kuzon loved the ritual. He had always thought he was a decent teamaker, but Mushi was far better than he would ever be. 

And after they went their separate ways to run their separate errands, Kuzon would return to his room, open his window and wait for the arrival of a certain new friend.

When Kuzon had first found said friend perched on his windowsill, he had nearly had a heart attack. He had also thought he was hallucinating, but then he heard someone in the streets below yelling about how a certain furry little creature had stolen food from their stalls. That vendor likely had no idea that they were trying to track someone whose species had probably been wiped out more than a century ago, so Kuzon decided to take matters into his own hands.

He had lured the lemur into his room with the little bit of food he had and slammed the window shut so it couldn’t slip back out into the street. This only resulted in the lemur panicking - and Mushi and Lee being very confused in the neighboring room - but quick, frantic whispering on Kuzon’s part seemed to do the trick. He wasn’t really sure if the lemur actually understood what he was saying, but it seemed to understand that he didn’t mean any harm.

The next day, the lemur came back.

And the day after that.

_ And  _ the day after that.

Now leaning with his elbows on his windowsill and the lemur beside him had become just as much of his daily routine as spending time with Mushi and Lee. That’s what they were doing right now: surveying the city down below while stuffing their faces on moon peaches.

Kuzon glanced over at the lemur.

In response, it just took another bite out of its peach.

“I wonder what your family is like, little guy,” he absentmindedly commented. The lemur titled its head to the side. “You have to live with  _ someone _ , right? You wouldn’t come to Ba Sing Se on your own, and you always go heading off towards the upper ring when we’re done.”

Kuzon thought for a second. 

“...Did some Earth Kingdom noble buy you and bring you here?” he guessed. “I heard that the Earth King has a pet bear - it seems like nobles everywhere like exotic pets.”

The lemur made a noise.

“I’m sorry,” Kuzon said, taking a bite out of his own peach and letting the juice run down his hand, “but I don’t speak lemur.”

He stared back out at the city.

“Then again,” he realized, “you don’t speak human, either. So we’re even with that.” 

It was getting late out. The sun was still in the sky, but it had almost dipped below the horizon. Even the activity in the street was starting to slow down. Vendors packed up their wares and started heading off towards their own shoddy apartments. People heading back from work finally made it to their homes. Only a few lingered in the streets. 

_ Like Jet had _ , Kuzon absentmindedly thought.

“...You should probably be heading home soon,” Kuzon pointed out. The lemur cocked its head again, fruit still in its tiny furry hand. “Whoever you live with is going to get worried when you take too long to get back.” 

If the lemur shared his concerns, it certainly didn’t show it. It took its sweet time finishing its peach - as well as starting another one. By the time that it was almost done with  _ that  _ peach, the sky had gone dark. 

It was time to take matters into his own hands.

He gave it a gentle little nudge. 

“You really need to go now,” he said. It gave a little disgruntled noise as he temporarily displaced it, but Kuzon couldn’t give into its cute face. “It’s night time. If you don’t leave soon, I’m going to have to pick you up and bring you to the upper ring myself.”

Seeming to sense the threat, the lemur quickly finished its meal and took to the night skies.

Rolling his eyes - and giving a little smile - Kuzon picked up the peach pits. Dropping them into his wastebasket, Kuzon couldn’t help but glance back in the direction of the window. He was sure that the lemur could get back on its own, but he hated to think of what its owner must have been going through…

He glanced at the wastebasket.

He glanced at the window.

The lemur wouldn’t have gotten far yet. There was still a chance that he could catch up to it. And if it led him to its owner, he could explain just where the lemur had been. It would ease their concerns  _ and  _ satisfy Kuzon’s curiosity.

Giving into a childish sense of adventure, Kuzon slipped out through the window and into the streets below. He didn’t want to lose sight of the lemur, after all. 

**xXx**

Momo was missing, and Katara was terrified of the implications.

The lemur hadn’t been gone for too long. Katara knew that Momo had a habit of exploring the city when they were all busy - it was something they had all picked up on when they first came to Ba Sing Se. Aang had obviously been worried the first few days, but had quickly gotten used to it. He had even started asking Momo about how his day had gone when he came back. 

But Momo wasn’t back yet.

Aang was distraught. Toph, Sokka and Katara all were, too. But while they were worried about the lemur’s safety, they were also all concerned with Aang. They had all seen his reaction back in the desert when they discovered Appa had been taken. Even now, he still grew quiet whenever Appa was referenced in conversation. Katara wasn’t sure what the loss of Momo would do to Aang’s already fragile spirit.

So they split up and started searching Ba Sing Se.

Katara wasn’t sure how she had gotten there so quickly, but she eventually found herself in the middle ring of the city. She liked the middle ring much more than she liked the upper ring - she couldn’t help but feel out of place in the house that the avatar and his companions had been given. None of this city was like her village back at the South Pole, but this came much closer.

The streets were mostly empty right now. Some people lingered on the sides of the road underneath lanterns and store displays, but they were few and far between-

Someone suddenly bumped into her.

“I’m sorry!” a man fervently apologized.

Katara took a step back as the man did.

“I was so busy looking up that I didn’t think of looking right in front of me,” he said, a sheepish smile on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe man wasn’t the right word; he only looked a few years older than her. Nothing about his messy dark hair, darker skin, brown eyes or earth-toned clothes stood out to her, but she felt the strangest sense of familiarity. 

“It’s alright,” Katara reassured him. “I was looking at the side of the streets, so I’m also at fault.”

There was a pause. 

“I’m Katara,” she offered. She still couldn’t put her finger on why, but she felt like she could trust him. Maybe it was his friendliness - he seemed like the kind of person she wouldn’t mind talking to for a bit in the middle of her search. 

His smile turned a little less sheepish. “I’m Lee. Are you...Are you  _ sure  _ it’s okay that I bumped into you? I know it’s minor, but if there’s any way I can make it up to you...” 

Katara contemplated the offer. Resting her hands on her hips, she glanced up towards the sky. Maybe Lee had seen Momo while he was stargazing? “ _ Well _ ,” she said, “I was looking for someone. If you really want to make it up to me, you can help me find them.” 

Lee’s gaze lingered on the sky. 

For a moment, Katara was sure he was going to shoot her down. His supposed offer apparently didn’t hold up against his love of stargazing. But then he sighed and turned his head away from the almost starless night sky, a look of defeat dancing across his face.

“I can do that,” he said. “Who are they?” 

“‘What are they?’ might be a better question,” Katara admitted. “I’m looking for a flying lemur-”

She was cut off by Lee snickering.

She stared up at him, eyebrow raised and lips pulling into a thin, confused frown.

“Sorry,” he apologized as the last bit of laughter died down. “Again. It’s just that I was looking for a flying lemur, too. And since flying lemurs aren't really common, I'm guessing we're looking for the same one."

"...You're looking for Momo?" Katara said. She glanced up at the sky. She hadn't expected  _ that _ .

She looked back at Lee. 

"Why are you looking for Momo?"

Lee rubbed the back of his neck again. His gaze returned to the sea of darkness above them; only the light from the nearby street lights cast away the shadows from his face. "I wanted to make sure it got home okay. It's been visiting my apartment for a little more than the past week. It - Momo - stayed later today than usual, so I just wanted to make sure that it got home okay."

He faltered.

"...And  _ kind _ of wanted to see its owner," he admitted. "I was honestly expecting a Earth Kingdom noble because lemurs definitely count as exotic pets, so I'm, uh, a little surprised that you're Water Tribe?"

Before Katara could explain that Momo wasn't really hers, Lee's eyes suddenly widened. 

"Water comes after air," he whispered. Straightening a little (with an excited glint to his dark eyes) he asked, "You don't know anything about the avatar, do you-"

"Katara!" a voice suddenly yelled from the other end of the street. Katara spun around. She could just barely make out Sokka's silhouette - with the addition of Momo perched on the top of his head. Relief almost immediately flooded her. "I found Momo!"

Katara glanced back at Lee.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, "but I really need to go now. Thank you for the help."

Before Lee could say anything else, Katara turned around and started rushing towards where Sokka was. Aang was going to be so happy when they returned with Momo! And to think that Momo had been visiting other people in the city. No wonder he had been getting home so late!

She looked up at the lemur in question. 

Grabbing Momo off of Sokka's head, she sternly said, "You had us worried sick, Momo-"

"Wait!" Lee shouted from the other end of the street. "Do you-Do you know the avatar, Katara?"

Momentarily tearing her attention away from her Momo as they turned the corner, Katara shouted back, "He's my friend!" She half-expected Lee to come running after them, but he never came. 

"Who was that?" Sokka asked. "And why was he asking about Aang?"

Katara thought for a moment. 

"He must have just been curious," she said, glancing down at Momo's face - and noticing all of the dried peach juice around his mouth.  If Katara had looked down while talking to Lee, she might have noticed his slight limp. She might have realized how he kept avoiding putting pressure on his leg. And, if she had stayed any longer, she would have likely heard Lee cursing his injured leg underneath his breath. 

But the only thing on Katara's mind was returning Momo to Aang. 

The two Water Tribe siblings headed off towards the upper ring. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really need to take a break from writing this so i can focus on schoolwork and getting myself squared away for this week, but i just had to write this one chapter. i'll probably be taking a little bit of break before writing/posting the next chapter, but we'll see how that plan works out!! 
> 
> in other news, this is my first time ever writing katara and im pretty happy with how she came out! i especially like the idea of the dynamic she could have with kuzon, even if it's just for a little bit of a chapter. 
> 
> (and, yes, the arrival of sokka & the realization that water comes next in the avatar cycle is 100% so kuzon thinks that sokka is the current avatar.)


	8. growing on the same vine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if the title didn't give it away, you're going to want some tissues for this chapter :')
> 
> for maximum sad, i highly suggest listening to leaves from the vine instrumental version on repeat while reading. but you'll definitely want those tissues if you do.

In retrospect, jumping out of his window when his leg was in the middle of healing wasn’t Kuzon’s best idea. It wasn’t until he watched Katara and the boy who had to be the next avatar disappear around the corner that he realized the error in his earlier plan. Some part of him should have known that a lemur would end up with the next avatar, but that same part of him hadn’t ever given the next avatar much thought.

Kuzon tried catching up to them, but they were gone by the time that he turned the corner. He returned - defeated - to his apartment and tried to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do with that information as he stared out the infamous window.

He had always known that there would be a new avatar. He had even heard rumors of him during his travels. Meeting the avatar was right up there with helping with the war against the Fire Nation. But that had always been a small dream; he hadn’t expected it to happen for a _long_ time. Now he had a face and the name of the avatar’s friends. If he put his all into it, he’d easily be able to track them down.

He rested his head in his hands and let out a sigh.

So why did his heart hurt so much at the thought?

**xXx**

Time passed. 

Ba Sing Se felt more and more like a home. The longer he worked in Pao’s Family Tea House, the easier it became to forget everything that came before. Restless nights on hard, cold rocks underneath the stars faded from memory. The pangs of hunger slipped out of the corner of his mind. And, more importantly, Kuzon began to feel like he _belonged_.

He asked about the avatar here and there, but people either hadn’t seen him or knew he lived in the upper ring. They rarely let people from the lower ring into the upper ring; he knew he wouldn’t be able to meet the avatar easily.

So he let himself scheme.

Or, at least, that was what he told himself.

But work couldn’t occupy him forever. He finally had a true day off. Mushi had been the one to initially request it, but Pao knew who got their tea sold. His tea makers and waiters were released for the day. It was the perfect kind of day to slip into the upper circle and track down the avatar. If not, it was the perfect day to slip into the palace and offer his services to the king. 

He made it to the edge of the lower ring.

As he stared at the transition point between the poor and slightly less poor, Kuzon couldn’t bring himself to take the first step out of the lower ring. The boy he had seen nights ago kept flashing through his head - and all that Kuzon could do was compare him to Aang. He didn’t have Aang’s smile. He didn’t have Aang’s laugh. It wasn’t to say there was something wrong with this new avatar.

...He just didn’t feel like home.

So Kuzon turned and retreated to the area of Ba Sing Se he knew the most. He walked past the hidden entrances to the cave system that lay underneath the city. He wandered by the fountain Lee and him had stood at what felt like an eternity ago.

And then he found himself heading closer to the wall.

And farther out.

Before he knew it, he found himself on a hill overlooking the rest of the city. He stared at it for a moment. Then the new avatar’s cry of “Katara!” rang through his head again. The pit in his stomach grew stronger; he felt like it was going to overtake him.

He turned his back to the city.

He climbed over the hill, walking past the tree.

It wasn’t until he was halfway down the hill on the other side that he finally stopped. He wanted to firebend to comfort himself, but he knew that he couldn’t even risk that out here. He settled for laying down and staring up at the blue sky. He wasn’t sure how long he laid there. The only hint that time had passed was the soft, gentle blues above eventually fading into a warm sea of oranges and reds. 

A lone music note floated down from the top of the hill.

Kuzon slowly raised his head.

The smell of incense reached his nose as he got to his feet. For a moment, he wasn’t really sure what to do. But as the musician finally started to sing, Kuzon quietly made his way up to the very top of the hill. He stopped a good few feet away and listened as a man he knew very well sang a song that must have come from the heart.

Mushi was the one singing.

When Kuzon caught a glimpse of the memorial Mushi was singing to, he felt tears prick at the very corner of his eyes. He didn’t know the man - the boy - in the drawing. He didn’t know his relationship to Mushi. But the loss that Mushi was singing about? Kuzon knew exactly what it was like to lose someone to a war that they never should have had to fight. 

He didn’t move until Mushi finished his song. Even then, he was hesitant. He knew he had accidentally walked into something incredibly private, but it just felt...wrong to leave Mushi alone right now.

“Mushi?” he said, finally finding his voice.

The older man looked over at him. He had tears on his face, too, but Kuzon still felt like he had to frantically wipe away his own. Kuzon wasn’t entirely sure if Mushi had noticed him before he had spoken. He was always observant, but it was clear his focus was on the memorial. There was a pause before Mushi gestured for him to sit down.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” Kuzon apologized. He moved to sit down near Mushi, but paused when he saw the memorial again. “I-I can go. It’s...It’s just that your song made me think of someone I used to know.” 

He reached into his pockets and fished around. A second later, he presented a worn cloth to Mushi. He always had one on him in case his allergies acted up, but Mushi needed this more than him right now.

“Thank you,” Mushi said, ducking his head down in a quick little nod. He took the cloth from Kuzon, but he didn’t move to wipe his eyes. His gaze turned to the memorial. “It would have been his twenty-third birthday today.”

“...Oh,” Kuzon whispered.

He looked at the memorial.

“...What was his name?” he asked.

“Lu Ten,” Mushi said, giving a small, regretful smile. He still kept looking at the memorial. “...My son.”

Kuzon glanced between the memorial and Mushi. He could easily see the resemblance. But the memorial had a surprising regalness to it. Maybe Mushi was too deep in his grief to notice how much it gave away; maybe, at this point, he didn’t care. Kuzon already knew that Princess Azula was after both Mushi and Lee. Because when Kuzon’s gaze went to the writing in the corner, he realized that Mushi wasn’t really Mushi’s name at all.

It was Iroh.

General Iroh.

In the back of his mind, the name rung a bell.

He looked back over at Iroh, understanding dawning on him. Lu Ten must have died in some kind of battle - and that was why Iroh was here in Ba Sing Se now. His son’s death must have changed him; Kuzon couldn’t possibly imagine the kind teamaker he had befriended being in charge of any kind of army.

Kuzon took a deep breath.

“...Do you believe in spirits?” he asked. 

Iroh finally looked up at him.

“I do,” he said, his voice soft.

Kuzon looked back at the memorial.

“You must have heard stories of people being taken away by them,” Kuzon guessed, slipping his hands into his pockets. “But you probably haven’t heard of someone who went looking for them in the first place.” 

“I have,” Iroh admitted, “but I assume this person did not want to cause them harm.”

Kuzon gave a little nod.

“He was looking for someone else. He wasn’t sure if he would actually find them, but…”

He let out a sigh. After a moment of hesitation, he finally sat down a few feet away from Iroh with his legs crossed. Resting his hands on his knees, he glanced back up at the darkening sky above. 

“...He went all the way to the poles looking for them after hearing stories about how thin the barrier between our world and theirs was. He had expected the spirits to slip through to our world, but he had never expected to slip through to theirs. And finding a way in is much easier than finding a way out.”

He looked down at his lap, hands now clasped tightly together.

“There’s a place in the Spirit World. It’s filled with mist that’s impossible to see through. He saw the mist from atop a cliff and thought he should avoid it, but the rocks gave out underneath him. And the mist isn’t just hard to navigate - it takes away who you are. You’re reduced to your greatest mistake. And it’s almost impossible to get out of on your own.” 

His grip tightened.

“So he just _wandered_ there. He probably would still be wandering there if he hadn’t heard a voice cut through the fog one day. There was a new person ranting in the mist - an admiral from the Fire Nation. The admiral mentioned the world that he had forgotten. The _person_ he had forgotten. And he mentioned a general Iroh, too, and a young prince of the Fire Nation.”

He didn’t dare to look up at Iroh at this point; he was too scared to see the reaction. 

“But that didn’t matter at the time. All that mattered was the person who had been mentioned. I- _The someone_ suddenly wanted to get out of the mist more than anything, so he did. He got to the cliff. He climbed his way out. And he was so determined that he stumbled upon an exit from the Spirit World at the North Pole. But there’s a funny little thing that no one ever mentions about where spirits come from - time passes differently there.”

He took a deep breath again, closed his eyes, and tried to blink away his tears.

“...By the time that he finally escaped, it had been almost a century.”


End file.
